Furquan is a journalist and a media researcher. He has written at the intersections of politics, identity, conflict and social exclusion for prime Indian and global news outlets such as The Telegraph, IndiaSpend, Hindustan Times, The Caravan and Al Jazeera. His last stint was with Land Conflict Watch, where he led the editorial and product initiatives. Furquan has also worked as a researcher with the International Center for Journalists and been a fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. He has presented his research at several academic conferences including the International Journalism Festival in Italy, at the UNESCO Press Freedom Day celebration in Ethiopia and at the Kabul University.
Modi government has commissioned an audacious operation to scrub India’s global image. The primary target is international indices in which India fares badly. Ministries, embassies, and a special unit called GIRG have been tasked to track and influence over 30 indices that rank countries on hunger, poverty, democracy, rule of law among others. Their playbook? Lobbying to alter methodologies to bump up India’s rankings, unleashing ministers to bash the indices, and creating homegrown indices with cherry-picked data to make India look good. This investigation exposes a government more obsessed with optics than fixing country’s real problems.
{{BOLD}}The Ministry of Truth, Concluding Part{{/BOLD}} [[BR]] Ministries pass the buck on democracy and rule of law while quietly acknowledging rising corruption and politicised investigative agencies
केंद्रीय कोयला मंत्रालय की स्टार रेटिंग स्कीम खदान मालिकों द्वारा पर्यावरण संबंधी कानूनों के उल्लंघन और खनन प्रक्रिया से विस्थापित लोगों के प्रति खनिकों की जिम्मेदारियों से पल्ला झाड़ने में खनिकों की मदद कर रही है।
How the Union Ministry of Coal’s Star Rating scheme helps coal miners greenwash their violations of environmental laws and broken commitments to displaced people.
गायों में गांठदार (लंपी) त्वचा रोग से तेजी से निपटने वाली सरकार ने देश भर में हो रही सूअरों की मौतों को अनदेखा किया, जिसके कारण दलित और आदिवासी किसान बर्बाद हो रहे थे। सरकार के इस पक्षपाती रवैये ने एक गहरे नीतिगत पूर्वाग्रह को उजागर किया।
While swiftly tackling the Lumpy Skin Disease in cows, the government looked the other way as pigs dropped dead across the country, devastating Dalit and tribal farmers and exposing a deep policy bias.
The company had also donated to BJP within five days of its promoter P Sarath Chandra Reddy’s arrest in the alleged Delhi Liquor Scam. Reddy later got bail and turned approver against Arvind Kejriwal.
रक्षा मंत्रालय के मार्गदर्शन में चलने वाले सैनिक स्कूल, भारत के सशस्त्र बलों में कैडेट भेजते हैं। हालांकि, इस नई पहल ने भविष्य के कैडेटों को प्रशिक्षित करने के का जिम्मा एक खास विचारधारा की तरफ झुके हुए संगठनों को दिया है।
Sainik Schools, run under the Defence Ministry’s guidance, send cadets to India’s armed forces. The new initiative however relies on ideologically slanted organisations to train future cadets
While a top Reliance official donated entirely to the BJP, a firm linked to the Group gave 91% of its donations to the ruling party.
Election Commission’s fresh tranche of documents reveal how Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s party received total Rs 656.5 crore in electoral bonds
India’s Energy industry has donated nearly 30% of the total donations in electoral bonds. Such political donations hint at the existence of a new licence raj.
The company faced Income Tax raids when Ramesh was with Telugu Desam Party. The mining and infrastructure firm, run by his son and brother, hold key government contracts
For the past few years, Sun Pharma’s drug manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu courted allegations of environmental violations
Kotak group’s financial services provider firm Infina Finance donated Rs 60 crore in electoral bonds
Ramky group which owns the construction company has faced ED, CBI and Income Tax raids on multiple occasions
Over Rs 500 crores through electoral bonds were donated by the group soon after it faced ED enquiries for an alleged disinvestment scam
The third largest donor, Qwik Supply Chain donated Rs 360 crores to political parties in the year it made a profit of mere Rs 21.72 crores.
आंतरिक पत्राचार में दोनों सांसदों ने भविष्य में घोटालों की चेतावनी देते हुए नई कोयला व्यवस्था में खामियों को उजागर किया था। उनकी आशंका बाद में सही साबित हुई।
In internal letters, the two parliamentarians had punched holes in the new coal regime, cautioning of scams in future. Their words were prophetic.
आयकर विभाग ने डोनर्स से नकद, चेक या किसी भी अन्य माध्यम से राजनैतिक दलों को दिए गए हर डोनेशन का विवरण देने को कहा है। प्रवर्तन एजेंसियों के पास जल्द ही यह डेटा होगा, लेकिन अंधेरे में रहेंगे नागरिक।
The Income Tax department has asked donors to divulge details of all contributions made to political parties through cash, cheque, or any other mode. Enforcement agencies will soon have this data, but the citizens will stay in the dark.